| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: young man. John held back--who would not, after such an insult?--but Miss
Josephine was firm, and he has promised to call and shake hands. My
cousin, Doctor Beaugarcon, assures me that the young man's injuries are
trifling--a week will see him restored and presentable again."
"A week? A mere nothing!" I answered "Do you know," I now suggested,
"that you have forgotten to ask me what I was thinking about when we
met?"
"Bless me, young gentleman! and was it so remarkable?"
"Not at all, but it partly answers what Mrs. Weguelin St. Michael asked
me. If a young man does not really wish to marry a young woman there are
ways well known by which she can be brought to break the engagement."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: LETITIA
Well, but what of Mrs. Affable?
CHARLOTTE
Oh, I'll tell you as we go; come, come, let us
hasten. I hear Mrs. Catgut has some of the prettiest
caps arrived you ever saw. I shall die if I have not
the first sight of them. [Exeunt.
[page intentionally blank]
[illustration omitted]
SCENE II.
A Room in VAN ROUGH'S House
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: literature as a well-conducted age. I am justifying the century
and not its fringe. Perhaps a hundred women of quality were
lost; but for every one, the rogues set down ten, like the
gazettes after a battle when they count up the losses of the
beaten side. And in any case I do not know that the Revolution
and the Empire can reproach us; they were coarse, dull,
licentious times. Faugh! it is revolting. Those are the
brothels of French history.
"This preamble, my dear child," she continued after a pause,
"brings me to the thing that I have to say. If you care for
Montriveau, you are quite at liberty to love him at your ease,
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